Teaching to Learn
They say the best way to learn anything is to try and teach it. In teaching, you get thrown situations that you never would have thought of on your own.
I had such a situation tonight. I was to demonstrate and teach a couple scuba skills in the pool. The instructor was feeling ill (the flu) and was worried her ears wouldn’t hold up. The skills were “weightbelt remove and replace underwater” and “equipment remove and replace underwater”.
Notice the “underwater” part. That becomes important in a bit.
While everyone was setting up gear it was determined that we were short on weight. A few lead blocks were needed for a snorkeling class that was also going on (to hold down some holahoops for people to dive through…there would have been enough if not for that).
I, playing the role of nice guy and team player, surrendered the weight that I had specifically packed for personal use.
I should have known better.
On a normal pool dive, I’d have been fine. But with having to demonstrate skills, my bouyancy underwater was all over the place. I managed to demonstrate the skills adequately, but in my mind it was a little unprofessional.
Had the other instructors taken just five minutes to run down a mental list and ensure they had all they needed, it wouldn’t have happened.
In the future, my gear stays with me.